capital

• capitall (obsolete)

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkæpɪtəl/, [ˈkʰæpɪtʰəl] ~ [ˈkʰæpɪtʰl̩]
• (Standard Southern British, Northern England, Scotland, Wales) IPA^(key): /ˈkapɪtəl/, [ˈkʰapɪtʰəl] ~ [ˈkʰapɪtʰl̩]
• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈkæpɪtəl/, [ˈkʰæpɪɾəl] ~ [ˈkʰæpɪɾl̩]

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (Australia) IPA^(key): /ˈkæpətəl/, [ˈkʰæpəɾəl] ~ [ˈkʰæpəɾl̩]
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈkɛpətəl/, [ˈkʰɛpəɾəl] ~ [ˈkʰɛpəɾl̩]
• Rhymes: -æpɪtəl
• Hyphenation: cap‧it‧al
• Homophone: capitol

From Middle English capital, borrowed partly from Old French capital and partly from Latin capitālis (“of the head”)^[1][2] (in sense “head of cattle”), from caput (“head”) (English cap) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives). Use in trade and finance originated in Medieval economies when a common but expensive transaction involved trading heads of cattle. The noun is from the adjective.^[3] In the fourth sense, displaced native Old English hēafodburg, equivalent to head + borough (“city”).

Compare chattel and kith and kine (“all one’s possessions”), which also use “cow” to mean “property”.

Doublet of cattle and chattel.

capital (countable and uncountable, plural capitals)

1. (uncountable, business, finance, insurance, economics) Money and wealth: the means to acquire or produce goods and services, especially in a non-barter system.

   Hyponyms: venture capital, risk capital

   Near-synonym: assets

   He does not have enough capital to start a business.

2. (uncountable, economics) Already-produced durable goods available for use as a factor of production, such as tools and bulldozers (equipment) and office buildings (structures).

   Near-synonym: assets

   He pointed out that it takes both labour and capital to produce goods.

3. (uncountable, politics) The capitalist class; capital owners considered collectively as a politically influential group — commonly represented by wealthy individuals and private institutional investors.

   The markets crashing symbolized capital’s discontent with the tax reforms passed.

   He warned us darkly that capital will never be sated.

4. (countable) A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

   Washington D.C. is the capital of the United States of America.

   The Welsh government claims that Cardiff is Europe’s youngest capital.

   • 1995, Linda Fang, The Chʻi-lin Purse: A Collection of Ancient Chinese Stories‎^[1], New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 54:

     Lin Hsiang-ju immediately said to the king of Ch’in, “If Ta-wang wants fifteen cities from Chao, the king of Chao should also get something in return. What about giving him Hsien-yang as a gift?’ Hsien-yang was the capital of Ch’in.

   • 2005, Sharon Grehan, Random Acts of Malice, page 56:

     Ladies of yesteryear toured world capitals in sedate linen dresses, but such priggish frumpery hardly presents Americans as the carefree, egalitarian, and sensuous people the viewers of dubbed Baywatch episodes have come to expect.

   • 2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist‎^[2], volume 407, number 8839, archived from the original on 29 September 2020, page 52:

     From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. […]   But viewed from high up in one of the growing number of skyscrapers in Sri Lanka’s capital, it is clear that something extraordinary is happening: China is creating a shipping hub just 200 miles from India’s southern tip.

   • 2022 April 5, Edward-Isaac Dovere, “Why these Democrats think 25 state legislative races are the key to securing the 2024 presidential election”, in CNN‎^[3], Atlanta, Ga.: Warner Bros. Discovery, archived from the original on 11 January 2023:

     State legislative races tend to come cheap, with low turnout and tiny margins despite how state capitals have taken on an ever larger role amid legislative stalemate in Washington, DC. In 2020, a combined total of 46,000 votes determined which party was in majority control in 13 different state legislature chambers across the country.

   • 2023 June 8, Richard Collett, “He ran out of countries to visit, so he created his own”, in CNN‎^[4], Atlanta, Ga.: Warner Bros. Discovery, archived from the original on 16 May 2026:

     Wearing his best suit and sunglasses, the sultan of Slowjamastan officially declared independence from the United States of America at 12:26 p.m. on December 1, 2021 as he broadcast the secession live from his open-air government “office” in Dublândia, the capital of the Republic of Slowjamastan.

5. (countable) The most important city in the field specified.
   • 2010 September, Charlie Brennan, "Active Athletes", St. Louis magazine, ISSN 1090-5723, volume 16, issue 9, page 83:

     Hollywood is the film capital, New York the theater capital, Las Vegas the gambling capital.

6. (countable) An uppercase letter.

   Synonyms: caps, majuscule

   Antonym: minuscule

7. (uncountable) Knowledge; awareness; proficiency.

   Interpreters need a good amount of cultural capital in order to function efficiently in the profession.

8. (countable, by extension) The chief or most important thing.

• The homophone capitol refers only to a building, usually one that houses the legislative branch of a government, and often one located in a capital city.

capital (not comparable)

1. Of prime importance.
   • 1708, Francis Atterbury, Fourteen Sermons Preach'd on Several Occasions, Preface:

     a capital article in religion

   • 1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC:

     whatever is capital and essential in Christianity

2. Chief (in a political sense, as being the seat of the general government of a state or nation).

   London and Paris are capital cities.

3. (comparable, UK, dated) Excellent.

   a capital fellow

   That is a capital idea!

   • 1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 395:

     She was a capital housekeeper, and used invisibly to lay out the table in the neatest and handiest manner.

   • 1878, Henry James, An International Episode‎^[5]:

     “He is a capital fellow,” the Englishman in London had said, “and he has got an awfully pretty wife. […] ”

   • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 166:

     Sometimes he laughed heartily as if he heard some capital joke; by degrees this lessened, and he spoke rapidly, but in very low tones.

   • 1901 [1878], chapter 11, in Constance Garnett, transl., Anna Karenina‎^[6], translation of Анна Каренина (Anna Karenina) by Leo Tolstoy, part 6:

     "He really is a capital fellow, isn't he?" said Stepan Arkadyevitch, when Veslovsky had gone out and the peasant had closed the door after him.
     "Yes, capital," answered Levin, still thinking of the subject of their conversation just before.

4. (crime) Punishable by, or involving punishment by, death.

   capital punishment; capital murder

   • 1709, [Jonathan Swift], A Project for the Advancement of Religion, and the Reformation of Manners. […], London: […] Benj[amin] Tooke, […], →OCLC, pages 53–54:

     Neither could the Legiſlature in any thing more conſult the Publick Good, than by providing ſome effectual Remedy againſt this Evil, which in ſeveral Caſes deſerves greater Puniſhment than many Crimes that are capital among us.

   • 1649, J[ohn] Milton, ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC:

     to put to death a capital offender

   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 517:

     Some 1,600 priests were deported, for example, while the total number of capital victims of the military commissions down to 1799 was only around 150.

5. Uppercase.

   Synonyms: majuscular, uppercase

   Antonym: lower-case

   One begins a sentence with a capital letter.

   1. Used to emphasise greatness or absoluteness.

      You're a genius with a capital G!

      He's dead with a capital D!

      • 2021 February 9, Christina Newland, “Is Tom Hanks part of a dying breed of genuine movie stars?”, in BBC‎^[7], archived from the original on 6 September 2026:

        In recent years, much has been made of the lack of new heavyweight male star power in mainstream Hollywood. Talented performers may be everywhere, but Movie Stars, capital M, capital S, are something else.

6. Of or relating to the head.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     Needs must the Serpent now his capital bruise / Expect with mortal pain.

capital

1. (slang, dated) Used as an expression of approval, satisfaction, or delight.

   That's an amazing idea! Capital!

   • 1918, Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Constance Garnett, White Nights, page 83:

     "Capital! And I shall soon get a bonus."

From Middle English capitale, partly from Old French capital and partly from Late Latin capitellum (“capital or chapiter of a column”),^[4] a form of Latin capitulum (“head-like object or structure; chapter”) (whence English capitulum, chapter, and the synonym chapiter (“uppermost part of a column”)), from caput (“head”) + -ulum (diminutive suffix). Doublet of caddie, cadel, cadet, capitellum, and caudillo.

capital (plural capitals)

1. (countable, architecture) The uppermost part of a column.

   Synonym: chapiter

   • 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 3:

     But a great wonder of this chamber, and a marvel to behold, was how the capital of every one of the four-and-twenty pillars was hewn from a single precious stone, carved by the hand of some sculptor of long ago into the living form of a monster: […]

• Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “capital”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “capital”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• palatic, placita

Borrowed from Latin capitālis.

capital (epicene, plural capitales)

1. capital

capital f (plural capitales)

1. capital city (city designated as seat of government)

capital m (plural capitales)

1. capital (money)

Learned borrowing from Latin capitālis.

• IPA^(key): (Northern, Balearic, Central) [kə.piˈtal]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia, Northwestern) [ka.piˈtal]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

capital m or f (masculine and feminine plural capitals)

1. capital

• pena capital
• set pecats capitals

capital f (plural capitals)

1. capital (city)

capital m (plural capitals)

1. capital (finance)

• capitalisme
• capitalista
• capitalitzar

• “capital”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

Learned borrowing from Latin capitālis. Doublet of cheptel.

• IPA^(key): /ka.pi.tal/

• Audio:

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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capital m (plural capitaux)

1. capital (money and wealth)

capital (feminine capitale, masculine plural capitaux, feminine plural capitales)

1. capital (important)

   La peine capitale est abolie en France depuis les années 1980.

   Capital punishment was abolished in France in the 1980s.

• capitale
• capitaliser
• capitalisme

• Haitian Creole: kapital

• “capital”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

• plaçait

Substantivation of apocopated capitāle, nominative neuter singular of capitālis (“punishable by death; of the head”). See capitis poena (“capital punishment”) and -al.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈka.pɪ.taɫ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkaː.pi.tal]

capital n (genitive capitālis); third declension

1. a capital offence; a crime punishable by death, civil death, or exile

   capital facere ― to commit a capital offence

Third-declension noun (neuter, pure i-stem).

• “capital”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “capital”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

Learned borrowing from Latin capitālis. Doublet of cabedal and caudal.

• Rhymes: -al, -aw
• Hyphenation: ca‧pi‧tal

capital f (plural capitais)

1. (geopolitics) capital; capital city (place where the seat of a government is located)
2. (figurative) capital (the most important place associated with something)

capital m (plural capitais)

1. (finances) capital (money that can be used to acquire goods and services)
2. (figurative) anything of prime importance

• capitalismo
• capitalista

capital m or f (plural capitais)

1. capital (of prime importance)
2. (law) capital (involving punishment by death)
3. (rare, anatomy) capital (relating to the head)

• “capital”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “capital”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

• капитал (capital) — post-1930s Cyrillic spelling

Borrowed from French capital, Latin capitālis.

• IPA^(key): /ka.piˈtal/
• Rhymes: -al
• Hyphenation: ca‧pi‧tal

capital n (plural capitaluri)

1. (economics, business) capital

capital m or n (feminine singular capitală, masculine plural capitali, feminine/neuter plural capitale)

1. capital, important

• “capital”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2026

• chapital (Rumantsch Grischun, Vallader)
• chapitêl (Puter)

From Latin capitālis, from caput (“head”).

capital m (plural capitals)

1. (Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran) capital

• capitala, tgapitala

Learned borrowing from Latin capitālis. Doublet of caudal.

• IPA^(key): /kapiˈtal/ [ka.piˈt̪al]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: ca‧pi‧tal

capital m or f (masculine and feminine plural capitales)

1. capital (important)

   Es asunto de capital importancia.

   This is a very important matter.

2. capital (relating to a death sentence)

   Lo condenaron a la pena capital.

   He was sentenced to the death penalty.

capital m (plural capitales)

1. (finance) capital
   • 2024 January 3, Iván Pérez Sarmenti, “Nuevo blanqueo de capitales en Argentina: ¿quiénes podrían ingresar sin ser castigados?”, in CNN en Español‎^[8], archived from the original on 6 January 2024:

     Entre los cientos de propuestas, desregulaciones y cambios que presentó el nuevo presidente de Argentina, Javier Milei, se encuentra una iniciativa de blanqueo de capitales y activos, que fue incluida en el voluminoso proyecto de ley que envió al Congreso y que resulta muy atractivo para quienes decidan declarar hasta US$ 100.000 porque no se les cobrará ninguna penalidad.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

capital f (plural capitales)

1. capital (city)
   • 2023 June 8, Richard Collett, “Este DJ se quedó sin países que visitar, así que creó el suyo”, in CNN en Español‎^[9], archived from the original on 16 May 2026:

     Vestido con su mejor traje y gafas de sol, el Sultán de Slowjamastan declaró oficialmente la independencia de Estados Unidos a las 12:26 p.m. del 1 de diciembre de 2021, mientras retransmitía la secesión en directo desde su “oficina” gubernamental al aire libre en Dublândia, la capital de la República de Slowjamastan.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• Appendix:Spanish nouns that have different meanings depending on their gender

• “capital”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025